Women and unpaid family work in the EU

This study provides an analysis of the size and value of unpaid family care work at the European Union level. It proposes a method which relies on harmonised European surveys. It also compares two EU member States, Italy and Poland, whose time use data contain additional detailed information on child care and elderly care work. The study aims at improving the existing indicators in order to have a reliable quantitative picture to use in discussions on unpaid family care work at EU level

Use of time and value of unpaid family care work: a comparison between Italy and Poland

The study provides a comparison of the size and value of unpaid family care work in two European member States, Italy and Poland. A micro-data analysis is conducted using the Italian and Polish time use surveys. Both the opportunity cost and the market replacement approaches are employed to measure family care work distinguishing between childcare and care of the elderly. The comparison between the two countries reveals that Italians participate somewhat less than Poles in child care, but substantially more in elderly care, because of demographic factors. However, the main explanation of the difference in the value of unpaid family care work, which is higher in Italy, is to be attributed to the discrepancy in hourly earnings, since average earnings of Poles are about one fifth of those of Italians. The value of unpaid family care work is more comparable when computed as percentage of the national GDP. Depending on the approach, it ranges between 3.7 and 4.4 per cent of the Polish GDP and 4.1 and 5 per cent of the Italian GDP. The national values of these activities are discussed and an interpretation of the country differentials in the family caretaking gender gaps is given in terms of differences in culture, economic development and institutions

The mobilization that was not : Explaining the weak politicization of the issue of unemployment in Poland

By combining mass unemployment, a high level of restrictive changes in policies addressing the unemployed, and a low level of political and social conflict connected to these issues, Poland appears as a puzzling case in the European landscape. During 1989–1990, the revolutions that brought to an end decades of communist rule in Central and Eastern Europe were accompanied by a wave of hope for rapid material gains from economic restructuring. Similar expectations for an improvement in well-being accompanied European Union (EU) accession fifteen years later. In this context, the rise of unemployment, which is often associated with a failure of government policies, could be interpreted as a nonachievement of the new political regime